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DOJ issues ‘potentially devastating’ memo on disability law
The Trump administration released a memo last week that seeks to upend landmark disability laws and court rulings that prioritize people with disabilities receiving care while living in their community instead of at institutions like nursing homes. The memo, released by the Justice Department in response to a White House inquiry, does not change any existing laws. But it does signal the administration’s stance on the rights of people with disabilities, legal experts told STAT’s O. Rose Broderick — especially their right not to be segregated in institutions to receive necessary care.
“You can’t change the law through fiat. But I do think [this memo] signals a frontal attack on basic tenets of the disability rights movement,” said Jennifer Lav, director of the Disability Practice Area at the National Health Law Program. Read more from Rose on the details.
Relatedly, a new First Opinion essay takes issue with the all-or-nothing approach to the “medically frail” exemption in the new Medicaid work requirements. Soon, people will need to either work 80 hours per month, or assert they’re incapable of working at all. “This single change could strip coverage from the very people the drafters claimed to protect while simultaneously chilling disability employment,” the authors write. Read more.
HHS has sent drug for Ebola clinical trial
The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that it sent doses of a highly promising monoclonal antibody to treat Ebola for use in a clinical trial. The monoclonal, MBP-134, is made by San Diego-based MappBio with financial support from BARDA, which owns the doses. The HHS spokesperson did not stipulate how many had been set aside for the clinical trial. The monoclonal has already undergone a Phase 1 safety trial. The WHO, one of the sponsors of the trial, says the trial protocol is under review by ethics committees and regulatory authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
Previously, HHS had stated that some of the available doses of MBP-134 would be sent to Kenya for possible use in a quarantine and early treatment facility that the U.S. is building to house Americans who may have been exposed to Ebola in the outbreak zone. The Trump administrationhas made it clear it does not want anyone infected with or even exposed to Ebola to be repatriated to the U.S. for quarantine and treatment. It has said that should Americans be infected in the field, they will be sent to currently undisclosed European countries for treatment. Meanwhile, as of yesterday, the number of confirmed cases in the DRC has reached 1,048, with 267 deaths. — Helen Branswell
FDA to launch pilot program to speed up early-stage clinical trials
In stateside drug development news: Federal health officials announced a pilot program yesterday to speed up early-stage clinical trials, in hopes of encouraging U.S.-based trials and combating Chinese dominance in biotech.
The pilot is part of a “department-wide” effort at HHS to strengthen the U.S.’s involvement in clinical trials, though details are limited on what other agencies will be doing. Read more from STAT’s Chelsea Cirruzzo and Lizzy Lawrence on what we know so far.
Who’s the mystery patient who got an experimental weight loss drug?
Millions of Americans are eagerly awaiting a powerful new drug from Eli Lilly called retatrutide, which has demonstrated bariatric-surgery levels of weight loss. But as STAT’s Lizzy Lawrence has learned, one mystery patient managed to skip the wait.
The patient was 79 years old in April, when a request was made to get him the drug through the FDA’s compassionate use pathway, which is typically reserved for patients with serious, life-threatening conditions who want to try experimental treatments. This patient was on another Lilly obesity drug for a year but experienced only moderate weight loss.
Experts who Lizzy spoke with repeatedly questioned why Lilly would offer compassionate use for a single patient when obesity is such a widespread condition. Drugmakers often establish these programs for large cohorts of patients, and it would be nothing new for a large company like Lilly. So what’s going on here? Read more.
In transition to adulthood, suicide treatment disparities emerge
About 1 in 8 young adults ages 18 to 25 have had suicidal thoughts or made plans or attempts to end their life. Among them, white young people are much more likely to access any sort of mental health treatment than their Asian, Black, or Latino peers, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics.
Researchers found these disparities by analyzing data from a 2022-23 federal, population-based survey on drug use, mental health, and behavioral health. About half of white young people received any treatment, compared with 28% of Asian, 29% of Black, and 35% of Latino young people who reported suicidal ideation, planning, or attempts.
People in this age range, sometimes known as “transition age youth,” are particularly vulnerable to suicidality but tend to have the lowest rates of access to mental health treatment compared to other age groups. Policy solutions should prioritize insurance continuity during the transition into adulthood and implementing universal screening in nontraditional settings, the authors wrote.
An AI model that predicts seven forms of structural heart disease based on EKG images received a sweeping FDA clearance this month. Called EchoNext, the program will be marketed to hospitals directly licensed to OpenEvidence, a medical evidence search engine that’s used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians.
Investors and cardiologists alike see potential for the basic idea of using AI to screen EKGs for disease. But nagging questions remain about whether health outcomes will actually see meaningful improvement. Read more on the technology from STAT’s Mario Aguilar.
What we’re reading
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1 in 3 Americans use chatbots for health advice. These 6 patients explain why, Washington Post
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A diehard drinker accidentally quits, New Yorker
- Opinion: Ending birthright citizenship could be a public health disaster, STAT
- When diets don’t work: Parents turn to Wegovy for elementary school kids, Wall Street Journal
- Definium LSD therapy helped patients with major depression in late-stage trial, STAT